HÀ NỘI – Holding a board symbolising lucky money for the New Year, Đặng Thị Thu Thảo smiles brilliantly.

Thảo, a worker at the Thăng Long Plant under Canon Việt Nam in Thăng Long Industrial Zone, said that it was the 16^th year she had been given lucky money for the New Year by the company.

“On the first working day of the new year, we meet each other again and everybody is happy and eager. I hope that with every worker’s efforts, the company will develop,” said Thảo.

This year 98.5 per cent of the Canon workers came back to work after the Tết (Lunar New Year) holiday, which ended last week, thanks to the company’s preferential policies for workers.

Phạm Thị Vân Anh, the company’s trade union chairwoman, told the Nông Thôn Ngày Nay (Countryside Today) newspaper that the company hired 180 automobiles to take workers and their families to their hometowns for the holiday.

The company also gave bonuses and presents to employees.

Other companies also welcomed many employees back to work after the holiday.

Samsung Việt Nam restarted operations last Thursday. The company has 100,000 workers, 93 per cent of whom returned to work.

The company did not face worker shortages after the Tết holiday as they implemented preferential policies for workers, said a company representative.

“Besides helping workers to buy coach and train tickets to return to their hometowns, the company gave bonuses to workers. This month, the company increased salary for all workers, and bonuses for those with high productivity,” said the representative.

Nguyễn Đình Thắng, deputy chairman of the Hà Nội Industrial Zone and Processing Zone Trade Union, said that there were no official statistics of employees returning to work after the holiday, but the trade union estimated that more workers cambe back to work than last year.

This was because of co-operation between companies and the trade union in taking care of workers, he said.

Phan Thị Thu Hằng, chairwoman of the Long Biên District Trade Union in Hà Nội, said that taking care of employees and protecting their rights was important.

In Long Biên District, enterprises also took care of their workers’ rights.

Before the holiday, the district trade union arranged 10 automobiles to transport more than 300 workers back to their hometown to enjoy the holiday.

Lots of orders for export

In industrial zones in the northern province of Bắc Giang,  the working atmosphere is also merry.

In the Si Flex Co Ltd in the Quang Châu Industrial Zone in Việt Yên District, nearly 1,000 workers registered to work on the last two days of the old lunar year, and the fourth day of the lunar New Year. Besides salary, the company gave bonuses of VNĐ200,000-400,000 (US$8-16) for each worker per working day during Tết.

Shinsung Vina Co Ltd in Song Khê Industrial Zone in Nội Hoàng District had more than 200 workers working during the holiday with salary of VNĐ1 million ($44) per worker per day.

With appropriate planning before the holiday, on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year the Bắc Giang Garment Company exported two containers of garments worth about US$35,000 to South Korea.

Nguyễn Thị Thu Hương, head of the company’s import-export division, said that after Tết, the company would export goods every day.

In the first month of the lunar New Year, the company aims to hit export turnover of more than $23 million to South Korea, the US, Japan, China and European countries, she said.

The Customs Department managing industrial zones in the province said that during Tết, about 10 foreign-direct investment enterprises came to the department to register for import-export activities.

Work also kicked off again after the festivities in the northern province of Quảng Ninh,.

Đặng Văn Chính, chairman of the Trade Union of Quảng Ninh Industrial Zones, said that this year most workers returned to work on the first working day after the holiday, because many companies arranged automobiles to transport workers to their hometown before the holiday, and bring them back after the holiday.

Some companies gave most of the Tet bonus to their workers before the holiday, and gave the remainder if they came back to work immediately after the holiday.

“This makes employees work harder and be eager to work after the holiday,” said Chính.

The same situation occurred in HCM City.

Trần Anh Tuấn, deputy director of the HCM Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information, told the Tiền Phong (Vanguard) newspaper that most enterprises implemented good salary and bonus policies, so the rate of worker shortages after Tết was low.

Surveys of more than 1,700 enterprises in the city showed that the labour market after the holiday was stable, he said.

“Companies’ social welfare policies were good, limiting the number of workers quitting their jobs. Therefore, demand for new workers this year is lower than previous years,” said Tuấn. – VNS